Okie Funk 2012 Year In Review, Part Three

(I’m running excerpts from 2012 posts on Okie Funk this holiday week. I thank you for following this blog, and I wish you the best for 2013.—Kurt Hochenauer)

Of course, Oklahoma City’s Kern, another right-wing religious ideologue, likes her God with all the fixings, too, so she issued a statement about Cathy’s remarks opposing same sex marriage. According to a media report, Kern said, “We need to support a business [that] is willing to take a stand for those values that Oklahomans believe and support.” She apparently also said, “We are in a culture war, and people need to start getting involved.”

Her remarks supporting Chick-fil-A’s corporate bigotry are only worth noting because they are part of a pattern of controversial statements that make Oklahoma seem backwards and archaic.

Here’s an idea: Since Kern is so obsessed about homosexuality, why doesn’t she travel to places that actually allow same-sex marriage and fight her “culture war” where it really matters? Inciting the right-wing religious robots here doesn’t do much for her cause, and it only damages the state’s image in the process.

The official mantra from many Oklahoma Republican and corporate leaders over the last two years or so is that the state is a national “success story” for the way in which it has weathered the 2008 economic downturn.

Another trope that has surfaced these past two or three years is based on the idea that Oklahoma has much to teach Washington, D.C. and President Barack Obama about the way to operate a government.

People all across the country are noticing: Oklahoma stands as a testament to the fact that low taxes, limited government, and fiscal discipline are a recipe for job creation.

Our success stands in stark contrast to the record of dysfunction, failed policies, and outrageous spending that occurs in Washington, D.C.

In Oklahoma, we could teach Washington a lesson or two about fiscal policy and the size and proper role of government.

But while it’s true that the state’s unemployment rate remains low—even despite a small rise in July—Oklahoma is hardly an economic miracle or a textbook example of what to do or not to when times get tough. There also remain major problems and the state has hardly recovered from the 2008 downturn.

Let’s outline some of those problems, and see how the federal government in some cases has helped Oklahoma through the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

“Now, there's something I've noticed lately. You probably have, too. And it's this. Maybe just because I grew up in a different time, but though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats.”—Bill Clinton in his speech at the Democratic National Convention
Oklahoma City native Elizabeth Warren delivered a well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, but don’t expect the conservative corporate media here to praise it.

Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor now running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, chaired a Congressional panel beginning in 2008 that oversaw the federal Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, and she later helped create the U.S. Consumer Protection Bureau.
In essence, she served as a major watchdog for American citizens during one of the country’s worst economic downturns in history, a daunting task she completed with great skill.

Warren, pictured right, grew up with modest means and was raised by working class parents in Oklahoma City. She attended Northwest Classen High School before leaving the state at a young age. She’s a role model—or should be a role model—for thousands of Oklahoma City area students, who also may come from low-income homes.